Military intelligence officers, Solomon Makumbe and Silas Pfupa have been removed from remand and freed after Harare Regional Magistrate Hosea Mujaya ruled that there was no authority to prosecute the pair. The two soldiers were accused of trying to petrol bomb former president Robert Mugabe’s Alpha and Omega Dairy farm in Mazowe. The two had protested that former national director of Public Prosecutions, Florence Ziyambi did not have the authority to have them prosecuted without authorisation from the Prosecutor General himself.
Magistrate Mujaya agreed saying,
Both the defence and the State admitted that the authority of prosecution tendered by the State was signed by former acting Prosecutor-General Florence Ziyambi. There was nothing provided before the court to show that she was authorised to prosecute the two. In view of that, there is no authority to prosecute the accused persons by the Prosecutor-General, the exception application by the defence is hereby granted.
Prosecutor Michael Reza then informed the two that they were now free and had been removed from remand.
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